Qinwen Zheng had a superb end to her 2023 season reaching the Quarter-Finals of the US Open, winning the Asian Games, Zhengzhou Open and final of WTA Elite Trophy not to mention a top 15 breakthrough.
But through all of that was actually a surprise that she kept on her upward trajectory with Wim Fissette her coach including in New York ditching her mid contract to return to
Naomi Osaka ahead of her 2024 comeback.
Rennae Stubbs, a renowned coach who has worked with Serena Williams in the past vented about the contract breach on the latest episode of the contract which made the popular Chinese ace cry.
Fissette has previously had enormous success with Osaka and going into the Australian Open where she will make her return, he decided to answer her call which Stubbs believes he should've pointed out given that the comeback was always there.
"I think what he did was not good. Here's my thing and I would like to talk to him so I don't want to completely throw him under the bus and I haven't spoken to him. But when you sign a contract, which he clearly did with Qinwen. And she was like "Okay we're going to be playing the whole year, you're under contract" and then you pull the swifty and go back to Noami," she said on the latest episode of the Rennae Stubbs podcast.
"You knew Naomi was coming back, we all knew Naomi was coming back. Naomi said she wanted to start playing at the Australian Open, this was months and months and months ago. So why would you sign that contract knowing that Naomi's probably going to come back? Like, I would have said to Q, "Listen, if Naomi comes back and decides to play in January, I'm going back to her but I'll give you six months"," she added.
"But you have to be upfront when you're a coach in that circumstance and so to sign a contract and then go back to Naomi because I feel like she's going to win more than you are and pay me more, because clearly it came down to money because word on the street is that Wim likes the cashola. It's like, okay, listen if that's what you want your reputation to be then good for you. But not cool."
Stubbs-Queenwen union?
Stubbs though even angled for a job working for Qinwen Zheng and said that she is available and wants to make it happen as she is a fan.
"She's good either way and if she wants another coach I am currently free, well maybe let's make that happen because obviously she's got a lot of fans, myself included."